CSPC 2018

Organized by: Ryerson University, Wendy Cukier

In recent years, Canadian employers, economists and industry analysts have lamented a shortage of qualified personnel to drive science and technology innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth (CME/CSTEC, 2017; ICTC, 2017). Leading organizations in Canada’s professional, scientific and technical services (PST) sector still struggle to create equitable and inclusive environments for members of diverse groups (Coe & Hariri, 2017). Despite extensive policy and organizational changes, limited progress has been made in addressing barriers to diverse groups in Canada’s PST sector (Coe & Hariri, 2017). Many racialized minorities face unconscious bias and limited career opportunities within small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (Access Alliance, 2011). The “chilly climate” and pay differentials persist for women in STEM (Caranci et al., 2017; Cukier, 2007; ICTC, 2017). Indigenous youth, one of Canada’s fastest growing segments (Statistics Canada, 2011), comprise merely 1.2% of ICT workers (ICTC, 2017). Immigrant and female technology entrepreneurs continue to confront gender- related industry barriers (Orser, 2009; Orser et al., 2012; Orser & Riding, 2016; Cukier, 2017). Even though entrepreneurship is a desirable pathway to economic integration for members of diverse groups, particularly immigrants, recent reviews of Ontario’s incubator and innovation ecosystem suggest that the governance, processes, and resources do not support those from diverse groups (Canada-US Council for Advancement of Women, 2018). In this complex ecosystem, there is an acute need to leverage diversity to drive change.

This panel will concurrently examine the ways in which diversity produces the innovations that galvanize economic growth and the role of leading-edge tools, applications and approaches in fostering innovation for inclusion in Canada’s science and technical sector. Informed by an awareness of the skills gap and applying an ecological approach to diversity, this panel of leading technology and entrepreneurship scholars and industry experts will generate a practical alignment and reciprocal engagement between inclusion and innovation. They will identify and assess the potential of technology-enabled applications and tools that promote inclusion and examine how diversity can generating access to top talent and creative imaginations, expanding reach, and improving firm performance through inclusion and engagement. The panel will consider ways to replicate and share innovative tools and build capacity for evidence-based approaches to diversity policy. Finally, it will unpack how policies, practices and tools can advance inclusion by matching diverse job seekers to employers. Overall, this panel will emphasize how employers and policy makers can harness innovation and inclusion to create productive science and technology industries.